Client: “The blue isn’t right.”

Me: “What PMS color are we trying to match?”

Client: “Oh, you know, the color of the Texas sky around daybreak.”

My new favorite tumblr blog: Clients from Hell

Here’s my new desktop…

High in the sky above Lompoc, California, a freefalling Staff Sgt. Eric Thompson planned his skydive to coincide with the June 7 liftoff of a Delta 2 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base.

The Delta 2 carried the Italian Thales Alenia-Space COSMO-SkyMed satellite, placing it into Earth orbit. Thompson is an instructor with the 532nd Training Squadron.

Via Reddit via Space.com

Is there a better way to remind yourself of daily opportunities to grow as a person than splaying a little pop art across your chest? Maybe, but we’re sure this is a pretty good one. Oh, right: so you can’t actually wear it everyday? Well, you could always buy seven. (Or at least 14 of you could.)

Limited edition t-shirt: Grow Every Day by 200nipples

This completely appropriate design marks a watershed moment in 200nipples history. We’re entering a new phase of growth and rolling out a lot features and quality improvements for you over the next 8 months. If you want to have a say in them you can take the 200nipples customer survey. (5 minutes or less.)

200nipples has been around for 2 years years and sort of limped along with my sister, Scott and I doing this as a hobby. We’ve had ups and downs and been supported by an awesome core group of fans. Not to discredit them (we love and depend on you) and also not to put it too bluntly, but sh*t just got real.

We’ve taken on a fourth partner who’s now in charge of fulfillment and we’ve all three renewed our commitment to the project. This site is either going to become a real business in 2010 or it will go away.

Yada… yada… yada… what’s that mean for you guys, right? Well it means a lot of things, all good:

• A new website with less bugs, added features and a more streamlined checkout process.
• One design a week instead of once a month.
• Our ship time has been cut to one week instead of three.
• All designs now feature a discreet 200nipples logo and have been designed specifically for 200nipples and you won’t find them anywhere else.
• This blog will update daily with links and commentary on the intersection of design, technology, art and commerce
• Along with a host of other great features rolling out through October 2010…

So this is the perfect shirt to kick off our new initiative. We hope you like it and we’re excited to improve our product for you guys over the rest of the year.

“Grow Every Day” goes on sale on the home page March 1st, 2010 at 12:00am (US CST). Enjoy…

If you like this shirt, let us know in the comments. If you hate it, tell us why. The more feedback we get, the better.

2 Nuprin

As some of you may have noticed we’ve refreshed the site. We’re showing more info about each shirt, we have better mock-ups and we’ve improved the checkout process as well as talked some general usability issues.

Poke and around and let us know if you a typos or if you find something you can break. We’ve got a host of new site features rolling out over the next few months and this was a big first step.

And the BIG news is…

• As of March 1st, we’ll be bringing you a design a week instead of once a month.
• Also as of March 1st, our shipping times will be 8 days instead of 21.

More good stuff is coming; these are exciting times! Stay tuned.

Let us know what you think in the comments, or feel free to shoot us an email.

Eye Drops by 200nipples

Our February shirt is kind of special. It was designed by our amazing screen printer Dan Padavich. He owns Vahalla Studios in Kansas City’s Crossroads Arts District. It’s an amazing shop that primarily specializes in posters, letterpress and other types of old-school printing craft. They’re the ones who’ve been hand screening our prints every month for the last ~2 years.

Graduated 2004 from the University of Kansas. Visual Communications Bachelor degree, emphasis in Graphic Design and Printmaking. Bringing years of experience as a printmaker and designer, Padavic has printed work for just about every band and musician you could care to mention. Dan prints work daily for artist such as Hydro74, Frank Chimero, Meg Hunt, Blake E. Marquis & A. Micah Smith, of course his own work and all that they do together with pal Tad Carpenter under the Vahalla Studios name. Dan’s continual attention to detail as a printer is evident in his designs that show strong examples of typography mixed with unexpected compositions.

Check out Dan’s site (especially the poster section!) if you want to see some amazing modern art.

All that aside, this month’s shirt is called “Eye Drops” and it’s another one of our design’s that I can’t wait to wear.

“Eye Drops” goes on sale on the home page February 1st, 2010 at 12:00am (US CST). Enjoy…

If you like this shirt, let us know in the comments. If you hate it, tell us why. The more feedback we get, the better.

A special note about this shirt: Considering the large amount of ink on this shirt, it will be printed with a water-based ink. The colors are not as brilliant, but the printed areas of the shirt will be softer and breathable unlike traditional plastisol screen prints.

Ah, security theater! Is there nothing more achingly banal than taking off your shoes, throwing away your nail clippers and showing a disinterested wage-earner your shampoo so you can get on an airplane?

Quick! Who knows what the terror alert level is right now? Who is affected by it in their day-to-day activities, or more tellingly, who cares? I suspect the answer to both of those questions is, “very few” and rightly so.

The terror alert scale is more like a punchline or a political tool for scaring the masses than something useful. The threat levels are, by DHS’s own admonition, meaningless to the public; they won’t say what triggers an alert level, which means it can be anything from a true threat to this country to political manipulation. (An accusation that officials within the department itself have made as well as resigned over.)

FDR said it best…

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself-nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.

That’s the whole point of terrorism, after all, is it not? To paralyze? To turn advance into retreat? It seems to me like the Department of Homeland Security in the United States (along with quite a few of their counterparts in other countries) has acquiesced nicely to terrorist aspirations by creating quite a bit of useless fear themselves.

Here’s some things you should spend your time worrying about instead of terrorist threats: (source)

• You are 13 times more likely to die in a railway accident than from a terrorist attack.
• You are 12,571 times more likely to die from cancer than from a terrorist attack.
• You are six times more likely to die from hot weather than from a terrorist attack.
• You are eight times more likely to die from accidental electrocution than from a terrorist attack.
• You are 11,000 times more likely to die in an airplane accident than from a terrorist plot involving an airplane.
• You are 87 times more likely to drown than die in a terrorist attack.
• You are 404 times more likely to die in a fall than from a terrorist attack.
• You are 17,600 times more likely to die from heart disease than from a terrorist attack.
• You are 1048 times more likely to die from a car accident than from a terrorist attack.
• You are 12 times more likely to die from accidental suffocation in bed than from a terrorist attack.
• You are nine times more likely to choke to death on your own vomit than die in a terrorist attack.
• You are eight times more likely to be killed by a police officer than by a terrorist.

So the real problem with terrorism is fear itself. Considering the above, we should all get on with our lives, otherwise they win.

‘Nothing But Fear Itself” goes on sale on the home page January 1st, 2010 at 12:00am (US CST). Enjoy…

If you like this shirt, let us know in the comments. If you hate it, tell us why. The more feedback we get, the better.

Alright guys, this one came down to the wire. I really wanted to get this design, by the artist doesn’t speak English, so we had some interesting back and forth working it out, but I think it was worth it. I love this print and it’s a breath of fresh illustrated-air after my wordy graphic designs of the past few months. It’s called “Club Guns” by Loic.

I had Loic provide me with a translation of all the words in the design (they’re in French) as well:

• fragiles – fragile
• J’aime le fait – like
• de travailler – work
• quartier – neighborhood
• entier – whole
• de connaître les gens – to know people
• la musique – music
• ordinateur – computer
• la réalité – reality
• Qui es-tu ? – Who are you?
• Nice – beau
• Yeah – Yeah
• un – one
• gangster – gorilla
• ghetto – ghetto
• Off – vide
• Style – Style
• New – Nouveau
• School= école

And a little more about this French Artist (It’s pretty rough, so I’m trying to get him to send me a bio in her native language, I’ll post it here if/when I get it.):

Verlauf artist of modern times (Illustrator, Freelance Web designer). He arrived on Earth in order to work with pencils and imagination. His finest satisfaction is the gallery that was created in the womb of his mother for his little sister. It took 3 years for it to be available. From a patient’s temperament, likes to work on all types of media. Search and appreciates the challenge in his profession. A native of France, loves the world and life for its diversity. Her philosophy is love. I’ve attached pictures to my profile and Ai file.

And in French:

Verlauf artiste des temps modernes (Illustrateur, designer Web Indépendant). Il est arrivé sur la Terre pour travailler avec ses crayons et son imagination. Sa satisfaction la plus excellente est la galerie qu’ il a été créée dans l’utérus de sa mère pour sa petite soeur. Il a pris 3 ans pour que celle si soit disponible. D’un tempérament patient, il aime travailler sur tous les types de médias. Il apprécie le défi de la recherche dans sa profession. Originaire de France, il aime le monde et la vie pour sa diversité. Sa philosophie est l’amour.

You can find Loic’s portfolio here.

Club Guns goes on sale on the home page December 1st at 12:00am (US CST). Enjoy… If you like this design, let us know in the comments. If you hate it, tell us why. The more feedback we get, the better.

Hey guys, we’re aware that the home page is acting erratically and are racing to get it fixed before the midnight launch tonight. If we don’t get it fixed to go within the next 20 minutes or so, we’ll postpone until tomorrow night.

My apologies, watch this space for an update.

UPDATE: Carry on, carry on… Nothing to see here.

I Need Bacon T-Shirt

What do you really need? Is a life sustained, but only just, worth living? I can’t say with any authority because I’m not a philosopher; I’m a web developer, but it seems like the kind of question that could easily be answered with pop-art…

I Need Bacon T-Shirt by 200nipples

I’ve amended the standard list of needs here to include bacon. Why bacon? Well… I’m pretty sure it’s what they serve in line at the pearly gates when you’re waiting to get into heaven. Bacon is the champagne of meats; a total indulgence. I don’t even own a pig. If I did, assuming the pig was ready for slaughter, it would still take weeks to properly make (cure?) bacon. It’s also bad for me, salty and full of fat. Mmmmmmmm…

So I’m actually saying that life survived, but just, is not worth living. Along with certain things we must have for survival, we also need at least something that we want. This could be laughter or love, I suppose; your thing may not necessarily be bacon, but honestly, it probably is.

I Need Bacon goes on sale on the home page November 1st at 12:00am (US CST). Enjoy…

If you like this design, let us know in the comments. If you hate it, tell us why. The more feedback we get, the better.